I can honestly say that I don't know who it was more interesting for... the girls or the parents.
So goes the story that the head of the USPTO is now a woman and a former girl scout and it was important to her to reach out to the girls and give them inspiration. I know that I wish I had been a girl scout growing up because it seems that they were given tools to do some pretty radically cool things... you know, like making inventions and heading USPTO.
Behind the us (myself, my son Avi, my brownie Via, and my Junior Katelynn) is Lisa Seacat DeLuca from IBM. She is just freaking amazing! Like, Awe-mazing! She is down to earth, problem solver, and inspiring. She has two sets of twins (including 8 month olds), and invents so many things. She thinks outside the box. She finds a problem and tries to patent the solution. How freaking cool and inspiring is that?
Can you tell I am a fan of her? She was awesome with the questions the kids had, even when she got asked the same one twice back to back. She has done so many things and just maintained the balance in life I wish to aspire to. So inspired by her.
Lisa has 400 patents to her name currently becoming IBM's biggest inventor and more coming in. You can see her TED talk here. She wrote a book teaching kids binary. She is currently looking to get a patent on seat-shares at baseball stadiums. She is currently getting patents on many cool things that as a parent you would like, as a business person you would like, and just as you as a person would like. She is just freaking inspirational and cool!
You can learn more about Lisa DeLuca here
I so wish that more of my girls were able to go. Two of them went with me. My boy scout Webelos son even came with us. Let's say he was less than thrilled about going to a girl scout event. He left with feeling he learned a lot as well and had a lot of fun too. He couldn't wait to share his invention with the group and insisted on sharing.
We got to go around to booths were they meet inventors, investors, lawyers of all kinds. I even learned that for some patent lawyer companies the degrees required are insane. For example, there was someone there from the health department and they had patented something that gets used in the ER (spacing the name of the product). The lawyer there said she had to have had a degree in health sciences as well as working in the field plus a law degree to show they had enough knowledge to be able to be a health patent lawyer! Talk about a lot of school!
So not only did you learn things- you got related swag!
They did a puzzle with the invention instructions on it to get the emoticon pillows. They got a solar calculator, colour changing cups based on temperature, and more.
They answered questions to Hewlett Packard lawyers to get a lamp. My son decided to be a smartie pants and ask the question of whether Albert Einstein's brain was bigger or smaller than the average human brain. He told them it was smaller by 2.1 ounces and stunned the lawyer who said she had no idea.
Here is some pictures of the beginning-- what is really cool...
The USPTO got it's first woman head and she is the one who spoke at the beginning. I saw her prepping ahead of talking to the girls and it just shows how amazing she is. She took her role of talking to the girls and inspiring them to a whole new level. I loved it.
All the presenters were high up in the office and a lot of them were former girl scouts.
I think they had the right mind frame- it is not for Daisies. Brownies on up are perfect for this. Brownies may miss some of the main points but I think overall they did well with it. The exposure alone is a great thing for them to want to invent things.
I think they inspired not only my scouts but also me. So it was an all win day for us!
Want them to come speak with your group/scouts?
If you go to their site you can let them know you want them to come speak to your group about patents and liability as well. They will pair you with someone or people that are around you.I can't even begin to say how inspiring it was! I can't wait to do this again next year with my troop.
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